Loading apparatus for laundry washers and the like



April 4, 1933. e. B. WALLACE LOADING APPARATUS FOR LAUNDRY WASHERS ANDTHE LIKE Filed Feb. 18, 1951 4 Sheets-Sheet l 6%078 A5. h /z c i BY %74A TORNEJ Z April 4, 1933. G. B. WALLACE LOADING APPARATUS FOR LAUNDRYWASHERS AND THE LIKE Filed Feb. 18 1951 4 She ts-Sheet 2 JNVENTOR 660/38,5. hQ/AYCE BY fa $42 fl fl 7% u A TTORN Y7 A ril 4, 1933. e. B. WALLACELOADING APPARATUS FOR LAUNDRY WASHERS AND THE LIKE Filed Feb. 18, 1931 4Sheets-Sheet 5 .l I II II Illll Illllu H H f R Y Z vm .M y 4. 8 #M M 0VLW B A ril 4, 1933. G. B. WALLACE LOADING APPARATUS FOR LAUNDRY WASHERSAND THE LIKE Filed Feb. 18, 1931 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 66076 /5. MyZv K Q BYdwef a W %A%TORN%M Patented Apr. 4,1933

UNITED, STATES PATENT OFFICE GEORGE B. WALLACE, or eRAN'rwoon', NEWJERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO THE AMERICAN LAUNDRY MACHINERY COMPANY, 0ECINCINNATI, OHIO, A CORPORATION or 01:10

LOADING- APPA BA TUS FOR LAUNDRY WASHERS AND THE LIKE Application filedFebruary 18, 1931. Serial No. 516,605.

The invention disclosed in this application relates to load maintainingand feeding mechanism for fabric treating machines such as washers, drycleaners, tumblers and the like wherein there is a revolving cylinderprovided with a plurality of radially disposed pockets each adapted toreceive a definite predetermined load, lot, batch, or charge.

In treating laundry work and the like, in order to maintain the propersegregation of loads, lots or batchesof laundry, it is necessary thatthese difl'erent units after being metered out be charged intact intothe treating machine without danger of there being mixing of one unitwith another or without losing a single article. The necessity for suchhandling of laundry work is that the particular laundry of eachcustomer, for example, must be kept separate from that of anothercustomer, or where individual identificat-i on is used it is necessaryto maintain predetermined lots or batches intact throughout the variouslaundry treatments so that any instrumentality, no matter how simple, orhow seemingly obvious which tends to maintain or assist in perpetuatingthe predetermined separation of the lot, batch or load is of thegreatest importance.

In the average laundry there are a number of different treatments towhich the work must be subjected and in almost every instance it ispractically compulsory'that all the washing and like machines bearranged close together to avoid expensive piping and to segregate thismore or less sloppy process from other treatments. In such a situation,therefore, available space for trucks loaded with the different lots,batches or loads is very limited and many times results in disturbingthe classification which might otherwise remain intact. r

The present invention aims to overcome the difliculties inherent infabric treating installations such as laundries by providing the washingor fabric treating machines with means for maintaining and feeding theproper loads to the fabric cylinder whether this cylinder contains onlyone annular group of pockets or a pluralityof groups of such pocketsarranged side by side throughout the length of the cylinder. In thespecial arrangement shown, the feeding device is in the form of a chuteprovided with a plurality of doors similar to trap doors separating thechute into aplurality of load receiving maintaining and feeding hoppersdeliver- .ing their load successively one into the other and from thelower-most one into the treating =machine pocket. But these devices havenever been controlled in their operation by an operator operated controlwhich would by successive operator operated operations transfer thebatches one after the other from hopper to hopper and into the washerand it is this arrangement which forms the subject matter of thisapplication.

Other details of construction and operation will be clearly set forth inthe following description, drawings, and claims.

In the embodiment of the invention shown in the drawings, Fig. 1 showsafabric treating machine of the multiple Y pocket type with plural grouppocket arrangement together with a feeding chute extending through tothe floor above where the load metering takes place; Fig. 2 is avertical sectional view of a section of the chute with parts brokenaway; Fig. 3 is a similar view looking from right to left in Fig. 2;Fig. 4 is a vertical section looking at the right hand end as shown inFig. 1; Fig. 5 isa detailed view of the cam mechanism for stepping thecontrol bar around for the successive release of the trap doors; Fig. 6is a section upon the line 66, Fig. 5; Fig. 7 is a view similar to Fig.4

showing a modified form; and Fig. 8 is a section upon the line 88 ofFig. 7.

In the drawings, 1 represents the outer casing of a washing or likemachine adapted to receive the treating liquid or medium.' Within thiscasing is a revolving casing 2 provided with a plurality of Y pockets 3,4 and 5 there being three shown in the drawings. These pockets 3, 4 and5 are radially extending pockets arranged in an annulargroup. Inaddition to this group of pockets, there is shown another group similarin all particulars and built into the same cylinder. It is commonpractice to provide each of these pockets with a door 6 which opens andcloses the opening into each pocket and it is also common practice toprovide the easing 1 with a suitable opening indicated at 7 and arrangedto be closed by an outer door generally indicated at 8. The annulararrangement of the pockets also produces a longitudinal group of likepockets as shown and when a longitudinal group of pockets are in properposition access may be had to them through the casing and through thepocket door. The foregoing describes in a more or less cursory way theusual type of Y pocket washing machine and the present invention isparticularly adaptable to such a machine.

Supported above the washing, or other like machine, is the feedingmechanism comprising the lower delivery chute portion comprising the twolongitudinal chute parts 9 each having its mouth in a position to alignwith a pocket. In the instance shown, there are two annular groups ofpockets so that the feeding device will have two chute portions and adescription of one chute portion will suffice for both except in so faras the control mechanism is common to both and requires further specificdescription. Stand.- ing above the chute part is a main chute bodycomprising front and end walls 10 the back 11 being open and the topbeing closed by an upper inclined wall 12. Arranged within this mainchute body are door portions 13 extending from the opening 11 downwardlyand forwardly toward the front as shown in Fig. 1. They only extend fora part of the distance from the front to back as shown to their pivots.These three door portions are preferably arranged above the buildingfloor 14 above the treating machine so that proper loading and chargingmay take place out of the treating room and in what is normally termedthe classifying room. Extending beneath each of these door portions 13is a door shaft 15. Each of these shafts extends out atthe ends of themain chute body where, at one end, it is provided with a counterweight16 so arranged that the shaft tends to rotate in a counter-clockwisedirection as shown in Fig. 2 or as will appear in a door closingdirection. Forming a continuation of each door portion 13 is a doorportion 17 extending to a point near the wall 10 where it is providedwith a latch tongue 18 extending out through an opening 19 in the frontwall 10. Mounted on the wall 10 at each opening is a suitable latchplate 20 provided with bearings 21 for a latch shaft 22 which extendsalong outside the wall 10 and is common to all the doors in the samehorizontal plane. This latch shaft at each door is provided with a latch23 for ngaging with the corresponding latch tongue of the correspondingdoor and serves to hold the door closed against the tendency of the loadabove the same tending to open it. At the end of the main chute bodyshaft 22 is provided a latch operating lever 24 and it is these leverswhich are operated successively by the control mechanism actuated by theoperator as will appear.

Secured to each door portion 17 and to the shaft 15 is a rearwardlyextending arm 25 adapted to swing in an arc underneath the door portion13 as shown in Fig. l and to be engaged by a swinging gravity latch 26arranged upon swinging latch shaft 27 extending through. the end wallsof the main chute body portion. There is, of course, a latch for eachdoor at each vertical chute arrangement and each of the shafts 27, threein numher, is provided with an operating lever 28 provided at its endwith a pin 29. These pins 29 engage in slots 30 provided in a verticalfiat slide bar 31 extending up along the outside of the end wall of theentire chute arrangement, as shown in Fig. 1. This bar is provided withan upper handle 32 handy for operation by the operator on the secondfloor and another lower handle 33 close to the treating machine foractuation by the operator at this point. The slots 30 provide for lostmotion obviously necessary in avoiding the unlatching of a door whichhas been discharged and which should remain open to permit the passageof material past it from an upper hopper.

From the foregoing, it will be seen that the doors normally tend toclose by their counterweights and tend to open when their loads are inplace upon them and when open to the positions shown in dotted lines inFig. 1 a straight chute is formed from the upper hopper straight throughinto the treating machine below. The tendency to open is, of course,overcome by the latches 23 which by reason of the weight of theiractuating levers 24 assume latching position as shown so that once adoor is closed by its counterweight it remains latched in this positionuntil released.

The control mechanism for successively actuating the latches 23comprises a vertical rod 3 1 swivelled for rotation in the end of anactuating lever 35 extending out to a point near the front of thetreating machine. The connection between the bar and the lever is of aswivelled character so that the rod may turn freely for a purpose to bedescribed. This rod is mounted in suitable bearings 36 and in bearings37 in a cam block 37. This cam block between its bearings is providedwith vertical guides 38, Fig. 6, producing a track or groove 39 for pins1-0 arranged in a collar 41 fast on the rod. These pins are 120 apartand are in the same transverse plane with respect to the axis of therod. Secured to the cam block adjacent the left hand guide 38, as shownin Figs. 5 and 6, is a cam lug 12 provided with a leaf spring cam 43extending in a spiral arrangement into the groove 39. By thisarrangement one of the pins 40 may be moved up through the groove 39past the leaf spring cam and into the upper part of the groove and uponits return downward movement it will engage upon the top of the camspring and be ejected at the cam through an opening 44 through the guide38. This operation turns the rod 34 to a positionwhere the next pin 40will be moved into the path of a cam lug 45 on the opposite side of therod and having its cam surface leading to a recess or opening 46 in theright hand guide 38. This recess 46 is closed by a lever spring 47 onthe inner wall of the right hand guide. As the rod descends the pinmoves down the cam lug 45 through the recess 46 past the leaf spring 47and into the guideway 49 ready to be elevated in a manner justdescribed. This, partial rotation of this rod is through 120 and isutilized to bring latch engaging pins 48, three in number, arranged uponthe rod at proper points into a position to successively operate thelatch operating members 24. It is obvious that these latch operatingpins 48 are located at suitable points upon the rod with respect to thelatch levers 24 which they are to operate.

In operation the work is classified into lots, batches or loads, each inthe proper amount on the second floor and charged into the three bins orhoppers formed above the doors in the main body of the chute. The doors,of course, are all latched in closed position, an operation which isaccomplished by the manipulation of the bar 31. The operator at thetreating machine opens the outer and inner doors of the machine with atransverse row of pockets in alignment with the chute portions 9. Hethen actuates the lever 35 which causes the first horizontal row ofhoppers to discharge their loads into the pockets of the treatingmachine. The release of the lowermost latches 23 permits the lowermostdoors to move to open position due to the weight of material thereon.Such door opening movement causes the arms 25 of said doors to swingupwardly above the lowermost gravity latches 26, which latches thereuponhold said lowermost doors in open position. The inner doors of thesepockets are then closed and another row of pockets is brought around toposition and opened. In the discharge of the material from the firsthorizontal row of bins or hoppers, these doors are latched open and thenext operation of the lever 35 through the mechanism described trips thelatches of the second set of doors which discharge their predeterminedloads into the second set of pockets. This operation is repeated for thenext set of pockets of the machine. To release the doors from the openposition in which they are held by the gravity latches 26, the bar 31'israised, which causes said latches to swing upwardly and thus move out oflatching engagement beneath the door arms 25, whereupon said 'doors moveto closed position under the influence of their counterweights 16, allas will be readily understood.

In the modification shown in Figs. 7 and 8, the main body portion of thefeeding device is provided with rear inclined stationary floor portions50 extending to a point above the door shafts 15 and the doors 17 extendfrom a point below the inner lower edges of these fi'oor portions to theopening 19. Each door in this modification is provided with a pair ofarms 51 at the ends and these arms are connected by a transverse strip52 forming a. counterweight for the door and normally tending to closeit. These arms 51 extend horizontally when the door is closed and have amovement up under the floor portions 50. The latch mechanism for holdingthese doors open is the same as is used in the other form except thatthe bar 31 is provided with a slot 53 engaging a pin 54 projecting fromthe outside of the end wall. The upper end of this slot 53 engages atall times, when the bars are at rest, the pin 54 so that the weight ofthe bar 31 is not carried by the pins 29 and yet each latch pin 29 canassume the proper position in its slot 30 when the door is open.

What I claim is:

1. In load maintaining and feeding mecha nism, a casing having an upperreceiving and lower delivering opening, a plurality of hopper formingdoor portions arranged one above the other and mounted to swing betweenopen and closed positions, means normally tending to move said doors toclosed position, first mentioned latch means for holding said doors inclosed position, second mentioned latch means for holding said doors inopen position, operator operated means for releasing the secondmentioned latch means to permit the doors to close, and operatoroperated control means for successively releasing the first mentionedlatch means to produce successive discharges from the hoppers.

2. Load maintaining and feeding mechanism as in claim 1, wherein theoperator operated means for releasing the second mentioned latch meansoperates all of such latches simultaneously.

3. Load maintaining and feeding mechanism as in claim 1, wherein thefirst mentioned latch means comprises an independent latch for eachdoor, means normally tending to swing said latches into latchingposition, and operator operated means for sue-i cessively releasing saidlatches.

4. Load maintaining and feeding mechanism as in claim 1, wherein thedoor portions are hinged intermediate the front and rear of the casingand wherein the forward parts of said door portions swing downwardly fordoor opening movement.

5. Load maintaining and feeding mechanism as in claim 1, wherein thefirst men- 5 tioned latch means comprises a plurality of independentlatches, one for each door, a weighted arm for each latch to move thesame into door holding position, actuating means for said latchescomprising a vertical shaft,

'10 a plurality of release shoulders carried by said shaft anddistributed symmetrically about the axis thereof, means for raising andlowering said shaft, and means engaging said shaft and causing it torotate and bring said latch releasing devices successively intoengagement With their latches.

In testimony whereof I hereby affix my signature.

GEORGE B. WVALLACE.

